No Light (Portal Fanfiction)
by fandomfairy
Summary: This fanfiction is inspired by this video /did-you-reboot/SoundShow/NoLight/#, a brilliant usage of No Light, No Light by Florence and the Machine. What happened after Chell left and found a broken world devoid of other humans? This is a story of redemption and broken trust, and a lot of fragmented sentences and thoughts. Hopefully a continuing series.
1. Chapter 1

Once, there was an android who escaped his nightmares and ran to freedom.

Once, there was a woman who left the only place she had ever known to find a world of emptiness and a dearth of living souls.

Once, there was a woman who had been stripped of her humanity and forced into a computer that turned bitter and merciless over time.

This is their story.

It begins with Wheatley the android finally escaping GLaDOS and running to the surface

He runs for days and days until his joints almost freeze and his legs almost wear out

But he can't stop

He has to see her

He has to say something to her anything to her

Finally, after days and days he sees her, walking alone in an abandoned wheat field with her face turned towards the sky

He's an android. It's not physically possible for him to get a lump in his throat or butterflies in his stomach, but every single coherent thought he's ever had comes crashing down at the sight of her

She hears him coming. It's obvious from the way she cocks her head and turns just enough to see him standing there, his bright blue eyes illuminating the otherwise dark and empty surroundings

All he can do is stand there, mesmerized at the sight of her whole and clean, without her ribs showing underneath that wretched jumpsuit and without the dark circles under her eyes or pasty skin from lack of sunlight

She looks good, healthy, _beautiful_ his robotic brain thinks before he can stop the thought from emerging

All he can do is whisper a quiet, "love" to her as she stands there, clearly as dumbstruck as he is

A beautiful brief shining moment exists as they stand whole and together and quietly, crickets singing in the distance and above them the omnipresent moon

He can't tell if it's a smile or a grimace on her face, but she's wiping away tears and she's trying to catch her breath

She walks up slowly, carefully, as if she expects him to attack her. He doesn't blame her, of course. And he can still see the glisten of tears on her lovely perfect face as she reaches out, fingers light as the wings of a butterfly, to rest on his cheek and feel the pulse of electricity and the thud of machinery underneath his simulated skin

And before he can do anything but breathe a silent sigh of relief, she's gone

She's running at the speed of a bullet from a turret, leaving a trail of displaced wheat strands that he has to stumble through to follow her

"LOVE! WAIT! PLEASE, J-JUST WAIT! I'M SORRY, I'M SO DREADFULLY TERRIBLY SORRY"

She stops in the middle of her run, muscles tensing and pulsing and he doesn't know what to do when she turns around again and runs to him and takes him by the collar of his makeshift jumpsuit and crushes him against her in a mind-blowing, synapse-melting kiss that shatters the pleasure sensors on every millimeter of his lips and sends his brain awhirl in a happy dance

All too soon, it's over and the hold on his jumpsuit is a different kind of passion when she hits him, harder and faster every time and his brain doesn't know how to react and his brain sensors go haywire trying to stop her and stop the pain

his arms hang like dead weights at his side and he just can't _move_ because some part of him knows, just knows that he _deserves_ this, deserves every outpouring of her pain and betrayal and the damage he caused and her heart breaking every time she had to say goodbye to the android she had come to love, the android who had somehow become more of a human in her perfect blue eyes

After far too long, she stops, breathing and heaving and crying and shouting and another part of him screams at him to help her, to /fix/ this because it's his fault all of this is his fault but just like every other time he can't. He just can't

She slowly sinks to the ground, sobbing with every exhale and inhale as she falls apart in front of him and it's _just another thing he can't fix_

He crouches down next to her, attempting to put a friendly hand on her back when she seizes him in a wild desperate embrace that somehow tells him that she still needs him, he doesn't know why, but he makes a silent promise to himself that he will never make her cry again

And his lips press to her forehead, attempting to say all the things that just wouldn't come out before

He whispers quiet apologies and confessions for what seems like hours under the waning moon

while he holds her and she cries

She calms just as the sun begins to show over the horizon, and her chest rises and falls in the unmistakable pattern of sleep

He carefully, quietly rearranges her so that she is sleeping on his lap instead of on his metallic shoulders and he covers her with her jacket that he found next to her in the field

And they stay there, Wheatley busy with thoughts of how he can redeem himself, how he can make her happy again, how to make her smile

as Chell dreams for the first time in a long time of love and of not being alone in an unfamiliar broken world

but then under the hard yellow gaze of the sun

the gears and robotic bits in Wheatley's head begin to turn and rebel against the compassionate beautiful terrible thoughts of their owner

And as Chell sleeps, Wheatley's eyes begin a slow transformation from their natural sky-blue optics to a colder, pitiless gaze

a cruel smile replaces his penitent gaze and his bright blue eyes turn a terrible pitiless cold yellow

No happy ending is permanent.


	2. Chapter 2

The journey back to Aperture Laboratories was long and tedious, now that Wheatley wasn't running at the frantic pace he had before. Chell slept in his arms, courtesy of the shot he had injected in her veins as they slowly made their way back to the abandoned shed in the wheat field. Days passed, and Chell still slept. She stirred for the first time as the elevator descended into GLaDOS's chamber. She opened her gray eyes to see the familiar clean lines and sterile white surfaces of Aperture. The look of confusion and despair on her face had no audience but the altered Wheatley.

And then she saw his face. Blankly cold and as sterile as her surroundings, there was no light radiating from his optics. He didn't even look at her in his arms. He was blank and cool and indifferent and he didn't _see_ her and after the embrace of that other night it hurt deep down in Chell's heart. Everything that had been tender and vulnerable about her closed off at that moment and her expression resorted back to the mask of indifference she had tried to wear all through the tests and all through the taunts and threats and murder attempts.

At that moment, she remembered just why she had hated the artificial intelligence in Aperture. The memories she had tried so hard to block out and erase were flooding back in powerful surges of anger and frustration and disappointment. Being in the arms of a familiar android was _not_ helping the situation at all, and she struggled futilely to escape but his metallic arms held her much too tightly.

And it brought back even more painful memories of her joy and sorrow at seeing him again and the ridiculous way she had reacted. Although to be honest, she did not at all regret the fact that she had hit him. Her mouth closed into an even tighter line as she tried to forget what else had occurred

The elevator shuddered to a stop in GLaDOS's massive central chamber, and the enormous chassis circled around to face Chell with unblinking yellow eyes.

"_Hello again._"

Wheatley placed Chell gently on the floor of the elevator and she struggled to stand and look at the other android seated in the place of power. The eerie smile on the android's artificial face only widened when She saw the still blank expression in Wheatley's eyes.

And just like that, it was like nothing had changed. The past year didn't matter, her escape, the betrayal, it was almost all as it had been before. Chell against GLaDOS, but this time she didn't even have the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Aperture had a talent for instilling mundane objects such as portal guns or lasers with a grandiloquent string of adjectives that didn't really add anything more to the device itself. But a portal gun by any other name still wasn't anywhere to be found, and Chell was still alone.

The chassis moved closer to Chell until she was face to face with GLaDOS. The expression on Chell's face was as unreadable as always, but GLaDOS looked almost perplexed. The android pursed Her lips and scrutinized Chell from head to toe until Chell felt the unnecessary feeling of exposure, or the more necessary need to escape.

Then GLaDOS smiled. _"Did you miss this?"_

Chell tried to keep her expression motionless, but some measure of puzzlement must have come through, because the android drew back, making the panels on the chamber rise and cast an unearthly red glow on the chamber's contents.

_"You know what I thought about while you were gone?"_

Chell didn't want to know. She didn't care, she didn't _care_ what the stupid monstrous megalomaniacal robot had occupied her time with while Chell was free, finally free of Aperture and now she had been pulled back. No, that wasn't it. She had chosen to trust that stupid, moronic hunk of metal she had thought was a friend and maybe something to cling to, and now she was back.

And it was her fault; it really was, because as soon as she had seen his face she had gone for the most illogical action that she could have ever thought of. Chell usually prided herself on the mastery of reflexes and logic that had kept her alive while she was trapped in this wretched place. A lesser woman might have died or unthinkably given up, and Chell held on to that as her most treasured possession. Perhaps her tenacity was to blame; maybe that's why she had given Wheatley that second chance that he had destroyed and that he hadn't deserved in the slightest. She hadn't wanted to give up on him.

She stole a glance at him while GLaDOS was occupied with Her monologue, and it was very hard to hold back tears when he didn't even look at her. Before, when they had faced Her down, it was at least together. Now she had both malicious androids to deal with, and without a portal gun, her chances were slim to the point of sheer idiocy.

GLaDOS stopped ranting to the walls, and turned again to face Chell.

_"Oh. I don't suppose you were listening."_

Chell supposed that a wry smirk was within the parameters of sarcastic expression without exact verbal communication. GLaDOS did not look amused in the slightest.

_"I don't suppose you ever stopped thinking about yourself long enough to consider why you're here." _

It was a well-known fact to everyone in the facility that GLaDOS didn't expect an answer at this point.

_"Did you ever wonder why I hate you so much? Have you ever wondered that? Here's a hint. I'm brilliant. I'm not bragging. It's an objective fact. I'm brilliant, and I _loathe_ you."_

The android drew close again, grasping Chell's chin and pulling her towards the chassis until they were eye-to-eye.

_"You're angry. I get that. You've been a problem for so long that the moment I tried to make use of your useless existence you went against me. And I'll be honest. I only let you go because I gave up."_

And this was when Chell was forced to stand in the same horrid perpetual tiptoe that had haunted her for weeks after she had abandoned her Long-Fall boots.

_"But I learned something from you. Your tenacity is what made you an ideal test subject. And I don't think I want to give you up again."_

The android hauled Chell off of her feet and dangled her from the chassis over the gloom of the chamber. Chell was suddenly, horribly reminded of the fact that she had no Aperture Science testing equipment. Including the damned Long-Fall boots.

_"I was going to kill you. I had so many options. But this time, I think I'll have to be more careful. You're going to test. And I am going to make sure that this time, you won't escape."_

GLaDOS casually waved a hand at the motionless Wheatley.

_"If you pull stunts like that again, I'll take it out on this imbecile. Did you know that personality cores are able to feel pain? If you didn't, you'll find out."_

The chassis lowered again to the floor of the chamber and Chell took a moment to step down and massage where the android had cruelly gripped her. She was shoved forward by a metallic hand towards the elevator.

_"Let's get started. I wonder if the jumpsuit will still fit. I'm amazed at how… healthy you look. The outside world must agree with you." _

Chell stopped. There was a point where mere tenacity was not enough of an attempt to fight back. This required an actual negative reaction, and at this point she had nothing to lose. She was done, done with Aperture Science and if her life was on the line, so be it.

Some things are worse than death, and decades of testing in the repetitive chambers of Aperture counted as hell. For someone who had been to hell and back _twice_, death no longer seemed quite as terrifying. And although GLaDOS had previously threatened to reanimate her lifeless corpse, Chell wasn't going down without a fight.

But for now there was nothing to do but hope she could find something to fight with. She turned and walked into the elevator, saying a silent goodbye to the past precious years of freedom.

It would be foolish to assume she'd ever see the outside world again.


End file.
